Re: Terrapins: At Well Past 100, They're in the Mood

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting Jura <pristichampsus@yahoo.com>:

> Not all reptiles use TDSD.
> Many use genetics instead.
>
> Hence why the article used the qualifier: may. As in
> dinosaurs "may have" used it.

Yes, but I still see some fuzzy logic here:

1.  Many if not all coelurosaurs were/are likely endothermic 
homeotherms, and many maniraptorans, at least, apparently did/do 
incubate their eggs using body warmth.

2.  IIRC, different non-avian reptile groups utilize different schemes 
of temperature-dependent sex determination; in some, warmer eggs 
produce males, in others, females.

3.  It is possible that chromosomal sex determination is plesiomorphic 
for amniotes.  Didn't some of the many platypus sex chromosomes turn 
out to be homologous to the avian W and Z chromosomes?

--
Nick Pharris
Department of Linguistics
University of Michigan

"Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity."
    --Edwin H. Land